


A Reasonable Man

by rain_sleet_snow



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), Primeval
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 10:59:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6655315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry's welcome to drop in for a visit any time he likes, of course, but James Lester wishes he would use the front door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Reasonable Man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kez](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kez/gifts).



> Fandom-stocking gift for Kez. :)

"You know," Lester said, eyeing the elegantly besuited man who had just done a neat forward roll through his daughter's bathroom window, "when we were at university together, you used to come through doors. Sometimes, if I recall correctly, you even knocked. I count myself fortunate that my daughter isn't home; this is her bathroom, you know."  
  
"Delightful girl," Harry Hart said, straightening up and adjusting his cuff-links. "I've always admired that right hook of hers."  
  
"Yes, well, I don't admire the prospect of having to rescue her from your umbrella. Or explain you to her."  
  
"Are you telling me not to recruit her?" A mild expression of amusement crossed Harry's face, rescuing it from the blandly upper-class cast Harry so carefully stamped onto it.  
  
Lester suppressed a shudder of horror at the very thought of Liz joining the Kingsmen. To the best of his knowledge, her gender disqualified her, but he was fairly confident that Harry wouldn't let a little thing like that stand in his way. "She has too little imagination and too many principles for your line of work. Spare us all the explosions, Harry. Is this a social call?"  
  
"In a manner of speaking," Harry said smoothly, and Lester decided not to enquire further. If he'd been due for assassination, he would have been dead already.  
  
"I'd ask if you wanted to stay to dinner, but I'd make a shocking alibi."  
  
"No need to worry about that, James," Harry said. "Is that Chicken Kiev I can smell?"  
  
"Yes," Lester said, with an internal sigh. "Made from scratch."  
  
"By you? I haven't forgotten the food poisoning you gave me in second year."  
  
"No," Lester said dryly. "Liz is an excellent cook, and she considers that I don't feed myself properly. Would you like to stay for dinner?"  
  
"I would be delighted," Harry said, straight-faced. "It's been far too long since we spoke. And I could use some garlic, you know; ward off the vampires."  
  
The worst thing about Harry, Lester reflected as he led his guest out of the bathroom and offered him a drink, was that you could never tell if he was completely serious. Or, if he was serious, what he was being serious _about_. He made a note to read the _Times_ with particular care the next day, and - when he did - was not wholly surprised to read that the previously unsuspected drug baron, Lord Stoker, had suffered a fatal stroke at some point the previous night.  
  
Lord Stoker had lived and died on the penthouse floor of his block of flats, of course, and there was no reasonable way that Harry Hart could have descended thirteen floors on the outside of the building in a tailored suit and a highly-polished pair of Oxfords. But as James Lester was well aware, Harry Hart was not a reasonable man.


End file.
